Carlyle opens Jakarta office

Investment advisory activities in the country will be led by Rajiv Louis, a managing director with the Carlyle Asia buyout team, who joined the firm last year. He previously spent 15 years as an investment banker in Southeast Asia, including a stint as Indonesia country head for UBS.

Carlyle completed its first investment in Indonesia in 2012 - buying a minority stake in telecom towers operator Solusi Tunas Pratama (STP) for $100 million - after several years of thwarted efforts.

"Indonesia is a fast-growing market in Southeast Asia with attractive investment opportunities. Establishing an office in Jakarta is an important step in our expansion strategy to gain greater exposure in Indonesia as well as the Southeast Asia region," Greg Zeluck, managing director and co-head of the Carlyle Asia buyout team, said in a statement.

"This also reflects our commitment to investing in this exciting economy and to supporting the development of Indonesia's capital and investment markets."

Carlyle is the first global buyout firm to set up an office in the country, although the likes of KKR and The Blackstone Group have established or increased their presence in Singapore in recent years in order to better address the Southeast Asia market.

TPG Capital has taken a different approach, forming an alliance with Northstar Group, a Singapore-headquartered private equity firm that primarily focuses on Indonesia. TPG and CVC Capital Partners - an early entrant to the Indonesian market - have enjoyed the most success sourcing investments in a market where large-cap deals are in short supply.

Carlyle is in the process of raising its fourth Asia buyout fund, which has a target of $3.5 billion and has been in the market for approximately two years.

The alternative asset manager established a presence in the region in 1998 and now has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo, as well as Jakarta. Including external co-investment, Carlyle had invested approximately $13 billion in Asia as of year-end 2013.

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